First Day Of School In Frankfort, Kansas

 

It's that time of year again in Frankfort, Kansas, and this story will appear once again on this site, because the school here in Frankfort has not seen fit to come into compliance with safety standards observed by schools in other parts of Kansas, and has not come into compliance with federal law concerning the presence of weapons on school property, bullying, or student safety. The only change made is that credit shall be granted where it is due: the name of the errant and uncorrected guidance counselor who has been granted carte blanche to endanger children is Tom Schroeder.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander on a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.
Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the significance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was within half a mile of where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe.

First Day Of School In Frankfort, Kansas

It's that time of year again in Frankfort, Kansas, and this story will appear once again on this site, because the school here in Frankfort has not seen fit to come into compliance with safety standards observed by schools in other parts of Kansas, and has not come into compliance with federal law concerning the presence of weapons on school property, bullying, or student safety. The only change made is that credit shall be granted where it is due: the name of the errant and uncorrected guidance counselor who has been granted carte blanche to endanger children is Tom Schroeder.

Anyone who's listening, I will tell you a story. It's a true story, and it happened in October of 2009. Thankfully, it had a happy ending.

My oldest daughter used to be quite the avid cross country buff when she was thirteen years old. She was good at it, too. But one day, while she was at practice, and I was at home, just assuming that all was well, her coach drove past my house, stopping to talk to my eight year old son. Mr. Coach wanted to know if Mr. Eight Year Old had seen his older sister. Mr. Eight Year Old had not. No one had seen my daughter in over two hours. She was lost. Why was she lost? Because her coach had dropped her off by the side of a highway, four miles south of the town we live in, by herself, and just left her. It was part of cross country practice. No supervision. If she had been stung by a bee, had tripped and hurt herself, or had some other medical emergency, no one would have been there to help her. (at this juncture, you should know that I offered to volunteer to help with cross country, but since I do not attend a Christian church, my offer was rejected. The school staff thought it better to take chances with a child's safety in the way I just described) When my daughter realized that she did not know her way back, she started to wander on a side road, hoping it would bring her to a house, or another person. This area has a lot of commercial farms, and there were no houses or places my daughter could go to for help.

Back to my eight year old son.......Twenty minutes went by. While he did not realize the signifigance of his conversation with Mr. Cross County Coach, (also Mr. Guidance Counselor) he did realize that no one knew where his sister was, and it was getting later and later, and no one was looking for her. So he told me about it. I looked all over town, called all her friends, searched the school (why was the school left unlocked after everyone had gone home?) and finally started home to call the police, when a couple of senior boys drove up with my crying daughter in their car. It was still within a few minutes of when I found out she was missing, but this cross country coach had known all afternoon, and had not called the police, or spoken to me. Why? I guess whatever he cared about, it WASN'T my daughter. Well.........I actually DO care about my daughter. Nowhere else have I met a teacher that did NOT care, at least a little, about the children he teaches, but I think that is what the problem is with Mr. Cross Country Coach/ Guidance Counselor.

Suppose it was not young men from her school who found her, but a dangerous person? I have been told time and time again by the people who live in this small Kansas town that "those things don't happen here", and "there ARE no dangerous people here", but there was a sex offender whose address was within half a mile of where my daughter was abandoned. The police were quick to point that out, but the principal only argued his harmlessness as a sex offender with them and the school board is not worried about the incident.

My children no longer participate in cross country at their school. It isn't safe

Dallas Bond And A Scary Story In Kansas

Dallas Bond, a Northeast Kansan, is only twenty years old, but he has a more impressive arrest record than most career criminals. His most recent arrest was in Jackson County, Kansas, earlier this week, alleging that he persuaded a child under the age of fourteen to accompany him to a hotel room in Holton, Kansas, where he allegedly assaulted the child. This stems from allegations that were made while he worked as a dispatcher in Brown County, Kansas! Another disturbing side to this whole thing is that in conjunction with the sex crimes against children, Bond also faces charges of identity fraud and aggravated kidnapping, and felony theft. Wanna know what he allegedly stole? Handcuffs, leg irons, a taser, a radio, and police department shirts, apparently from his place of employment!

Bond is behind bars now, not out on bond. The incident from which one of the charges stem took place in August of 2013, which means that for over a year and a half, someone with an unhealthy interest in children, handcuffs, leg irons, and tasers was scouting around in Northeast Kansas, looking for children to kidnap and assault. It also means that the school board of USD 380, which has two schools in Northeast Kansas, Frankfort and Centralia, was very foolish to allow staff at Frankfort to continue to leave their building unlocked and even more foolish to continue to allow teachers to leave students by themselves in random locations away from the town. What will it take to convince the school board to dismiss the teacher who does this? And why would the teacher do something so sinister to a child?

Most of the news articles on the internet concerning this incident are dated February 2 or 3, but Dallas Bond was arrested on January 23. Only one of the articles, the one cited here, explains all the charges in detail. The theft charges are very significant in this case because of what this man unlawfully "acquired". In conjunction with the kidnapping and sexual assault of a child, what could Bond have possibly intended to do with handcuffs, leg irons, and a taser? If Frankfort wants to keep teachers who make children vulnerable to kidnapping, perhaps the parents who support this teacher should be the ones whose children get kidnapped by the man with handcuffs and leg irons. But in reality, if teachers are careless enough to extend an open invitation to this by transporting children to other locations and forgetting about them, it could happen to any child.

To put this in language that even the folks in Northeast Kansas will understand, suppose a child is dropped off alongside the highway for cross country practice and gets lost because she is new to the area, and someone wearing a stolen police department shirt, who also has a stolen police department radio in his vehicle, stops and picks the child up?  Police gear and uniforms are very convincing, when you've been dumped on the highway by your teacher and forgotten. Then what, Frankfort? It's exactly the same position in which you placed a high school freshman several years ago. If you frankfurters want school to be an open invitation to wacky-assed perverts with stolen handcuffs to pick up children and molest them, federal and state funding should be discontinued for your public school and you should fund it yourselves.

Stories like this one should receive more publicity. Men who kidnap children and schools who enable them by leaving the children alongside highways to be kidnapped do not deserve the community protection that comes with hiding incidents like this.

Yes, There Really Is Stranger Danger In Kansas

When will Kansas learn? Here's a twelve year old, who actually got away from an adult who tried to take her away, but with whom she was not familiar. The man even tried to intimidate the girl by slapping her across the face! Stranger danger. This happened in Topeka, and this child was extremely lucky.

Maybe it's time for USD 380's school board to rethink their situation with Tom Schroeder, the Frankfort guidance counselor/cross country coach who left a high school freshman girl by herself four miles away from school and didn't bother with a phone call to the police or to the girl's parents when he realized that she was missing. Unless his actions were deliberate, and ulterior motives played a role, this kind of carelessness should be reserved only for the families of those who support Schroeder's continued employment, not for those of us who love our children. Of course, if he intended to leave a child in a vulnerable position, awaiting some darker fate, as the stranger in Topeka obviously had in mind for the girl he tried to abduct, Frankfort, Kansas has bigger problems.

Is this what you and USD 380 were trying to do to my daughter, Tom Schroeder? 

Anyone with information about the case in Topeka, detailed in the video, above, is asked to call Crimestoppers at 785-234-0007.